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Combat🔗

Combat Sequence Per Round🔗

  1. Declare: Spells and melee movement.
  2. Initiative: Each side rolls 1d6.
  3. Winning side acts:
  4. Monster morale
  5. Movement
  6. Missile attacks
  7. Spell casting
  8. Melee attacks
  9. Other sides act: In initiative order.

Declare Spells and Melee Movement🔗

Players must inform the referee if they intend to cast a spell or move when in melee. Other actions need not be declared.

Initiative🔗

Roll 1d6: For each side at the start of each round.

Winner: The side with the highest roll acts first. Other sides act in order from highest to lowest roll.

Ties: Both sides may roll again, or actions on both sides may be resolved simultaneously; this means both sides may inflict deadly blows on each other!

Slow Weapons🔗

Combatants attacking with two-handed melee weapons (and some missile weapons—as indicated in the equipment description) always act last in the round, as if they had lost initiative.

Individual Initiative (Optional Rule)🔗

Instead of an initiative roll per side, a roll may be made for each individual involved in a battle, modified by DEX (see Dexterity under Ability Scores). The referee may determine an initiative modifier for very fast or slow monsters instead of applying a DEX modifier.

Monster Morale (Optional Rule)🔗

See Morale (Optional Rule).

Movement🔗

Outside of Melee🔗

Movement rate: Combatants can move up to their encounter movement rate each round.

Maximum duration: Combatants may move at this rate for at most 60 rounds.

In Melee🔗

When in melee with a foe, only the following forms of movement are possible:

  • Fighting withdrawal: The combatant moves backward at up to half their encounter movement rate. There must be clear space behind the combatant.
  • Retreat: The combatant turns and flees from melee, moving up to their full encounter movement rate. This round: the retreating combatant may not attack; the opponent gains a +2 bonus to all attacks against the retreating combatant and ignores any AC bonus due to the combatant’s shield (if applicable).

Missile Attacks🔗

Possible when opponents are more than 5’ from one another (see Attacking).

Range Modifiers🔗

All missile weapons have ranges noted in the equipment lists.

Short range: +1 bonus to attack rolls.

Medium range: No bonuses or penalties.

Long range: -1 penalty to attack rolls.

Beyond long range: Attack not possible.

Targets Behind Cover🔗

Complete cover: The target cannot be hit.

Partial cover: The referee may apply attack penalties of -1 thru -4 (e.g., a small table might incur a -1 penalty; dense woods might incur a -4 penalty).

Spell Casting🔗

Freedom: The spell caster must be able to speak and move their hands. A spellcaster cannot cast spells if gagged, bound, or in an area of magical silence.

Sole action: No other actions may be taken in the round when casting a spell.

No movement: The spell caster cannot move and cast a spell in the same round.

Line of sight: Unless noted in a spell’s description, the intended target (a specific monster, character, object, or area of effect) must be visible to the caster.

Disrupting Spells🔗

If a spell caster loses initiative and is successfully attacked or fails a saving throw before their turn, the spell being cast is disrupted and fails. It is removed from the caster’s memory as if it had been cast.

Melee Attacks🔗

Possible when opponents are 5’ or less from each other (see Attacking).

Other Sides Act🔗

Repeat steps 3.1 to 3.5 for each side, in order of initiative (highest first).

Attacking🔗

Attack Rolls🔗

  1. Roll 1d20
  2. Apply modifiers: STR for melee; DEX, range, cover for missile attacks.
  3. Determine hit AC: Look up the result in the attack matrix row for the attacker’s THAC0 (see Combat Tables). This column is the AC score that the attack hits.
  4. Result: If the hit AC is equal to or lower than the opponent’s AC, the attack hits. Referee rolls for damage.

Ascending Armor Class (Optional Rule)🔗

Groups using the optional rule for Ascending AC (see Game Statistics) should use the following attack procedure instead.

  1. Roll 1d20
  2. Apply modifiers: STR for melee; DEX, range, cover for missile attacks.
  3. Determine hit AC: Add the attackers’s attack bonus to the attack roll. The result is the ascending AC score that the attack hits.
  4. Result: If the hit AAC is equal to or higher than the opponent’s AAC, the attack hits. Referee rolls for damage.

1s and 20s🔗

Natural 20 attack rolls always hit. Natural 1 attack rolls always miss.

Invulnerabilities🔗

Some monsters are immune to certain attacks. In this case, damage is not rolled even if an attack hits.

Attacks Per Round🔗

PCs normally attack once per round. Some monsters have multiple attacks.

Attacking and Moving🔗

Movement and attacking may be combined in the same round.

Rolling for Damage🔗

PC attacks: Inflict 1d6 damage. STR modifies the damage of melee attacks.

Monster attacks: Deal damage as indicated in the monster’s description.

Minimum damage: An attack that hits always deals at least one point of damage, even when damage modifiers reduce the number rolled to 0 or less.

Death: A character or monster reduced to 0 hit points or less is killed.

Variable Weapon Damage (Optional Rule)🔗

Some groups may prefer different weapons to inflict different amounts of damage. In this case, PC attacks inflict the damage indicated for the weapon in the equipment lists.